NARRATIVE COLUMN
Contribution to ‘100 Columns’, Kingston School of Art, London, 2021 

This column, which cuts through four floors of a remodeled canal house in Amsterdam, was never designed. It sits in the middle of the plan and functions to support a series of hidden beams connecting the existing structure to the newly designed extension. A lost column in space not tied to any visible tectonic justification. It decided to take on a new role. To tell a story about the rooms it finds itself in. On the first floor along its base, a winding stair climbs up along three split levels of living space. Continuing on the two floors above, it takes on a more calming state standing formally in quiet sleeping rooms. Finally, in the attic, the column branches out to form a timber truss carrying the roof above bringing with it a causal sense of making. In a time where ad-hoc structure is easily placed, other stories can be told beyond in absence of a clear, tectonic narrative.

PUBLICATION: ‘100 Columns’ publication series
PUBLISHER: Kingston School of Art
EDITORS: Camiel Van Noten and Matthew Phillips
YEAR: 2021

VELDWERK TEAM: Marius Grootveld, Margot De Caster